Bloorview Research Institute

News: Partnership means infusion of childhood disability research funding

Research into childhood disability took a huge leap forward with the Nov. 7 announcement of a partnership between the Bloorview Research Institute and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to set a national agenda for children’s rehabilitation research and allocate an initial $3 million in funding.

Over 30 childhood disability experts from across North America were invited to a workshop at Bloorview to set Canadian research priorities and determine how the new funding will be distributed.

Bloorview Childrens Hospital Foundation contributed a $1.5 million grant to support the research, with matching funds from CIHR.

The partnership “will encourage researchers in this country to work together on common problems that have applications to the care and adaptation of children with disabilities,” said Dr. Michael Kramer, scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health. “Research in this area will be improved by making it more interdisciplinary,” he said.

Research experts participated in a full-day consensus meeting. The vehicles for distributing the new research funds – whether operating grants, team development grants, student support awards, or a combination of all – will be announced in June 2007.

The consensus meeting took place following the Bloorview Research Institute Symposium. The symposium featured 42 posters – highlighting the multidisciplinary research of institute scientists – as well as plenary talks by the institute’s four research theme leaders and the first Mickey Milner International Professorship Lecture. The Mickey Milner lecture – titled Strengthening in Cerebral Palsy: Where are we now? – was given by Diane Damiano, a physiotherapist and associate professor in the department of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Milner, former vice-president of research at Bloorview, is a world-renowned expert in the field of assistive technology.

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